Delaware 2026 (ongoing)

[montréaliste]

Originally Posted by xzmattzx

Got it. Sarcasm doesn't translate well online, and snow tires actually are not common at all down here. I didn't even know snow tires existed until I was in college and an uncle of mine in Buffalo asked me around when we put our snow tires on our cars, and I thought he was trying to prank me.

Lol, yes. I imagine how that would be if you’ve never had to consider changing tires according to seasons.

In Quebec, it has become illegal to drive without winter tires between Dec 15 and March15 for a number of years now. Last tear they changed it to Dec First. It used to be we’d pretend so called 4 season tires would do the job but science proved that wrong and it’s better to deal with snow and especially ice with the proper treads. An icy patch is still there to trick you, it’s still not the end of the story… lol

My last two cars were totaled because of collisions on icy roads…

[geomorph]

I am enjoying all the snowy photos of the historic buildings!

[xzmattzx]

After backtracking from that snowplow accident, I drove around the town of Smyrna for a little bit. Smyrna is halfway decent for a small town as far as architecture goes. I'm showing you most of the better stuff. Mixed in around town is a lot of regular vernacular, a little of which you can see in these pictures.

[xzmattzx]

After exploring Smyrna a little bit that afternoon, I eventually made it to Woodland Beach, which is around where the Delaware River becomes Delaware Bay.














An empty parking lot with lots of slush is great for doing doughnuts.

[xzmattzx]

The center of Wilmington's Polish neighborhood of Hedgeville is St. Hedwig's Roman Catholic Church, built in 1904.

[xzmattzx]

It's the first day of spring! I thankfully have no more snowy pictures. One thing I like to do is take pictures on the first day when I see various plants waking up. It helps me remember if spring was early or late.


My daffodils came out of the ground on February 26. Sometimes I see daffodils in bloom at the end of February.



A saw the trees start budding on March 9.



I saw my first crocuses of the year on March 11.



I saw my first flowering daffodils on March 17.




In all, it has been a late spring, after a cold January and snowy late January and much of February.

[xzmattzx]

It's been a while!

Let's look around the campus of the University of Delaware. Much of the architecture in the middle of campus is Colonial Revival architecture, which was huge in Delaware in the early 1900s, and continued to be huge in Delaware even after Modernism was embraced elsewhere beginning in the 1930s.

These are from the end of March.

[plinko]

I really wanted to see that campus when I was in Delaware last year but we never made it north of Dover. Looks beautiful.

[xzmattzx]

Originally Posted by plinko

I really wanted to see that campus when I was in Delaware last year but we never made it north of Dover. Looks beautiful.

It is definitely a nice campus! Delaware is sometimes called a "public ivy" school because of its campus and academics (although I think the school is the one that calls itself that the most).

Charles Bulfinch allegedly designed the first main building on campus, which I did not show earlier. It is called Old College.

[xzmattzx]

On Holy Saturday, the day before Easter, I went to Brandywine Park to see Wilmington's best display of cherry blossoms. The Yoshino cherry trees form an alley around the Josephine Fountain. The fountain was dedicated in 1932 as a memorial to Josephine Tatnall Smith by her husband, J. Ernest Smith. Smith also had the cherry trees planted, in 1929. The Josephine Fountain was inspired by the Fountain of the Labyrnith, located north of Florence, Italy. The Fountain of the Labyrinth was created by Niccolo Tribolo, with the figure of Venus on top by Giambologna, and was commissioned by the Grand Duke Cosimo in 1555 for the Villa di Castello. It was later moved to the Villa di Petraia, located just down the road north of Florence.

While the Tidal Basin in Washington, DC, and other cherry blossom displays are jam-packed with crowds, Wilmington's cherry trees see a fraction of the crowds, even on a perfect weekend afternoon like this particular day. Sometimes it is really nice that your state is heavily overlooked!

[xzmattzx]

Easter Day in Old New Castle

[ColDayMan]

New Castle is a gem.